Reviews: Taniguchi, Gorō

Planetes —
Makoto Yakimura, Gorō Taniguchi, Ichirō Ōkouchi

I
love quasi-plausible SF set in our solar system, especially SF that
tries to be at least semi-plausible. For a long time, Anglospheric SF
had little interest in that particular literary niche. I was forced
to look abroad. Which eventually resulted in my exposure to the
2003–2004 26-episode anime series
Planetes,
adapted by Sunrise from Makoto Yakimura’s manga of the same name.

Ah,
the bright and shiny world of the 2070s! Space travel is, if not
routine, at least common; oil has been replaced by lunar helium three
1, thus ensuring the continuation of energy-intensive civilization.
Prosperity abounds!

For
the people working for Technora’s
Half
Section
,
prosperity is unevenly distributed. Space is just where they happen
to work. The Half Section, more correctly called the Space Debris
Section, are the garbagemen (and women) of SPAAACE!